Diversity, Transcontinental Railroad topic of Carson City lecture

The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad is one of American’s milestone achievements, but it took a multinational workforce to get it done.

Many are familiar with the Chinese immigrants who labored for the Central Pacific Railroad, but they were just one of many immigrant groups who found work on the Pacific Railway.

On Jan. 18, the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City will host Christopher MacMahon, a museum volunteer and a Ph.D. student in history at the University of California Santa Barbara, for a presentation titled “Transnationalism and the Transcontinental Railroad.

The event starts at 6 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults and free for museum members and children 17 and younger.

The presentation will focus on immigrant labor, food, transportation of equipment and supplies and other related topics and their global connections. Admission is $6 for adults and free for Friends of NSRM members, NSRM volunteers, and children 17 and under.

MacMahon’s Ph.D. research examines the environmental impacts of early Nevada settlement and how those ecological changes shaped relationships between Euro-American settlers and the Paiute and Washoe tribes.

The lecture will take place inside the Jacobsen Interpretive Center, which later this spring will be home to a major new exhibit on the Transcontinental Railroad.

For information, contact Adam Michalski at 775-687-6953, ext. 224 or amichalski@nevadaculture.org.